And Now for Something Completely Different

Chapter 4



Harry awoke with a start. “We need to move now.” Something was off. Instantly Cain and Glitch were awake. DG took a moment but quickly she and Raw sensed the urgency. They didn’t even stop to put out the fire, they just left. Harry made them jog 100 steps and walk 100 steps. It conserved their energy but sped up their time. When he finally felt the eyes off them, he let them rest. They were all gasping for breath except for his Glitch. Harry had made the zipper head do this often when they were traveling. Suddenly DG’s eyes unfocused and she said, “All of life’s answers can be found along the old road.” Cain slowly turned to her but she’d already taken off. “She’s having a vision.” Harry told him. They all nodded and ran after her.



She didn’t stop running until she came upon a sign for MillTown. Harry looked at her in consternation. “My parents were from here.” They looked around the town, it was broken down. Suddenly Cain called out to DG, “We shouldn’t be here, come back.” It was too late. People started storming out of the houses and buildings. Their bodies were mutilated, some of them mostly machine. They were all carrying weapons, but Harry wasn’t worried. This place felt expectant. Like it was waiting for them, something would happen. He winked at Glitch and watched him relax. DG tried to reason with them, and the leader recognized her voice.



Suddenly DG cried out “Dad” and ran to hug what Harry assumed were her parents. The expectant feeling didn’t leave. This wasn’t all. Harry guided the others out of the town with a nod to DG’s ‘dad’. They needed to talk. Once outside again, Harry explained as short as he could. “They’re not her parents.” Cain nodded, “if they live here it’s because they are androids.” Glitch frowned, “Then who are her parents?” Harry put a hand on his Glitch’s shoulder, “We’ll find out.”



He found himself with DG in the leaders hut. Watching on a screen as her mother brought her here. Father view grabbed her hand, and burned a swirling pattern into her palm. Then he turned to Harry. “Your journey is of a different nature. You battled your demon. You are here to assist not to fight. For you too, this is home.” Harry’s brow furrowed. “I just want to find my Godfather, Sirius.” Father view nodded. “I have met the one you speak. He left you a message.” A screen popped up and Harry nearly fell down at the welcome sight of his godfather, healed from his prison both in Azkaban and in Grimwald place. He looked healthy. “Pup, time passes differently in the veil. I was only there for a moment, but you could have been there for much longer. You would still age in there, still grow, but you wouldn’t notice the passage of time. I’ve been here for 4 years now. I’m getting married. I’m sorry I have to tell you this way, Lily wasn’t your real mother, nor James your father. I did a favor to someone from the O.Z. I care deeply for, and went back and put you in her womb. No one knew. I left you clues to figure out who your real mother is. It’s your choice to figure it out or not. I will never stop loving you Harry.”



The video ended and DG helped him out where he was enveloped in the warm comfort of Glitch. Harry looked at DG, they shared a smile. A smile of shared experience. He was happy when Raw comforted her. Cain rushed them back into Father View’s hut, “Long Coats are coming.”



Father view told them to go to the wizard, Harry gasped, but Cain nodded. “I know him, the mystic man. Thanks bye.” He rushed them out and Harry wished, not for the first time, Luna had given him his invisibility cloak too. While Harry’s mind tried to cope, Cain was their strength, where Harry had been earlier. Things tumbled about in his head and he held onto Glitch’s hand for dear life. He’d even reached out to Cain once or twice, only to catch himself before Cain noticed. Glitch did though.



He snapped out of it quick enough, but his moment of fragility put a crack in the group. They’d been depending on him, and felt he let them down. He huffed and finally said, “listen its all well and good that you can all trust me, I like that, but I needed time to figure out what I learned meant. I’m good now. You can stop side stepping me.” He ended up growling. They just pissed him off so bad. DG had just bounced back, and she had known her parents.



Finally they caught sight of the city, and they all felt Glitch’s excitement. Just outside the gates, Raw saw a wanted picture for DG. Harry sighed and pulled out an old hollowed out log from the woods along the path. He transfigured it into a large wagon, and DG and Raw into horses. Glitch ended up as a rather good looking woman, and Harry turned to Cain with a smirk. “Just what do you think you’re going to do to me?” Harry’s smirk grew, “well every wagon needs donkey” Cain growled, pulled himself into the wagon and covered himself up. Harry chuckled, and decided to lead the ‘horses’ on foot. No one questioned them. Once inside, Harry led them to a dark alley and fixed them back. Immediately he was set upon by a pissed off DG. “Don’t ever do that again!!” she didn’t shout and Harry was proud that she’d learned that much restraint.



Only a moment later and Cain tried to disappear. Harry caught him with an outstretched arm. “When you have a plan and a location I’ll help you, but you need more then just a death wish” it was a tense wait for the nod, but Harry wasn’t letting him leave. Finally his patience paid off. “I know a guy who should be able to tell us where the Mystic Man is now.” Harry nodded and gestured for Glitch to go with him. He explained that they shouldn’t go alone, and he needed to stay with DG incase he had to hide her. “Be quick”



Glitch was unhappy separating from his Harry, but he trusted Cain. The problem was that Cain didn’t trust him. Their partnership would be rocky. “Okay, I’m going in, you stay inside the door and don’t talk to anyone.” See. Glitch did as he was told though, even when he heard thumps that sounded like body’s hitting the wall. Cain came out and brushed his lapel. “Got what you needed?” Glitch asked? Not exactly sure what that was, but Cain nodded and grunted, so Glitch assumed it was an answer of a sort.



Unsure of where he was, Glitch just followed the blond man next to him. He seemed oddly familiar. For one reason or another he wanted to hold his hand. He reached out to do so. The blond man looked down at where he was holding his lax hand. He smiled, and Glitch felt his heart lift. “Do I know you?” The man sighed and shook off his hand. He felt oddly cold now and wrapped his arms around his chest. The man sighed again and said, “Harry will kill me if you get cold.” He threw an arm around Glitch’s shoulder and pulled him into his broad chest. ‘Harry? Where was Harry?’ He wanted to ask, but the warmth was back and it felt so good.



The blond lead him around streets he dimly recognized and a few that made him whimper. Each time he did so, the man would pull him tighter and growl at the offending dark corner. Finally they came back into the light and Glitch felt his heart soar. “Harry” he cried out and Harry smiled at him, eyes twinkling, and laughed his deep laugh that finished what Cain began and warmed him through. Glitch didn’t let go of Cain when he launched himself at his Harry, so they ended up in an awkward three-way hug that Glitch barely noticed. “I remember you” “Of course, you promised” Glitch sighed and buried his face in his Harry’s neck.



“Get what you needed?” Harry asked Cain around Glitch’s zippered up head. Cain nodded and tried, and failed, to pull out of Glitch’s grasp. Finally he let it be and looked directly in Harry’s eyes. “I have a location.” Harry nodded, but DG was out of patience. “What about us? It’s not all about you Cain.” Surprisingly it was Glitch that snapped at her. “And not everything is about you Princess, although so far it seems that way.” Harry threw back his head and laughed, “DG, you have to calm down. Everything will happen when it needs to happen. Rushing will get you nowhere. Cain is reliable. If he said he got what was needed, then he got it.”



Humbled by Harry’s faith in him, Cain pulled out three tickets to the Mystic Man’s show and gave them to DG. She took them, and apologized. He nodded. It was nice having Harry as the leader, he didn’t to talk as much as usual. The headcase still hadn’t let go of him, finally his curiosity won and he asked Harry, “Why does he always only remember you?” He meant to sound curious, it came out petulant. He winced and hoped no one noticed. “I promised” Glitch answered and Harry smiled down softly at him. “It was something we did when we first met. I’ll tell you about it sometime, now we need to get something for them to wear.”



Glitch quickly led them to a store he knew, don’t ask Cain how, and picked out a surprisingly fashionable dress. It was 25 platinums. Cain had one. Harry took it and studied it; he bit it, threw it in the air, waved his stick over it, and then finally made three whole bags of the stuff, from the dirt they were standing on. Cain tried not to think about the damage he could do to the tax system.



That night Glitch, Raw and DG headed to the show, and Harry and Cain crept silently through the town. They had to stop in a dark corner to wait for long coats to pass and Cain remembered that this was the corner that caused the worst reaction in Glitch when they were walking back. He mentioned it to Harry. “Hey do you know if anything happened here to Glitch.” Harry growled, an evil dark sound Cain had hoped never to hear from the sorcerer. “Sometimes he has nightmares, and I just know someone Fucked with him, our Glitch. I hope he never remembers.” Cain took that the way it was meant and wanted to kill something, an odd emotion for a law man. He didn’t react to ‘our Glitch’ it simply was. Harry nodded seeing the same reaction on Cain that he had.



They continued on their hunt, but when they got there Zero was gone. “Just left. Said something about a girl being slipped into the city.” Harry told him to find them and was gone in a clap. The things he could do astounded Cain. He kept to the shadows but ran as fast as was safe. He got there in time to see Harry take out Zero’s whole troop with red lights. Zero wasn’t there, he checked. He was worried about the dark expression Harry wore and called out to him quietly. The sorcerer looked at him, but didn’t recognize him for a moment. Then he turned and Cain figured out what they expression was for. Glitch. Beaten bloody on the floor. Looked like the whole troop had gotten at least a lick in. He turned and pulled his gun. Harry’s hand stopped him. “You’re not a killer Tin Man.” Cain wondered how Harry knew, he’d never regretted putting his gun away more.



Cain rushed off to find DG and Raw. He found them in the Mystic Man’s room. He was high as a kite on Azkadelia’s vapors. Cain wrote him off, but then he said something about her mother and her lavender eyes. Raw heard shouts and Harry came in the door carrying Glitch on his back. “Time to go” they rushed to get out through the window, but not before the Mystic Man gave them a clue. The ice caps.



Apparently DG was a wiz with mechanics and stole them a car. They drove most of the way, Harry casting heat on them every hour or so. Everyone could tell he was tiring though. He’d used a lot to keep them safe, and then to heal Glitch, and now he was keeping them warm. It was too much, but the only one of them who had a hope to convince the sorcerer to stop was in a healing sleep.